Mountain dulcimer concert, workshop

Champion mountain dulcimer players Lois Hornbostel and Ehukai Teves will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, at the Swain County Center for the Arts in Bryson City. A reception will follow the performance, which is free and open to the public.

Mountain dulcimer player Neal Hellman will host a workshop from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, at the United Methodist Church in Bryson City. Hellman is a nationally acclaimed performer and teacher of the mountain dulcimer. His latest recording, “Emma’s Waltz,” is a colorful dance through traditional and contemporary acoustic music styles. Hellman will teach two sessions of workshops: 1 to 2:20 p.m. and 2:35 to 3:50 p.m. He will also perform a one-hour set for the public, following the workshops. Donations accepted.

This Must Be the Place

Standing in line at the Old Europe coffee shop in downtown Asheville, I said that to my old friend, Jerica. It was a rainy Sunday evening and we’d just gotten out of a documentary screening (about Tim Leary and Ram Dass) at the Grail Moviehouse. While I was mulling over the cosmic nature and theme of the film and what our place is in the universe (as per usual), I looked over at Jerica and smiled.

Reading Room

Of course, we’re intended to read from cover to cover many books — novels, histories, biographies, and more. It would make little sense to begin Mark Helprin’s novel A Soldier of the Great War on page 340 of its 860 pages. We might open and commence reading Paul Hendrickson’s Hemingway’s Boat, on page 241, but we’d miss some of the…